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Cheese began as an in-joke involving two friends of Dorkin who were sometimes called the "cheesy" Garcia sisters.[1] He continued drawing little cheeses that would eventually become "Cheese" on cocktail napkins at clubs during the mid to late 1980s. One night, at a restaurant, Dorkin scribbled a little Milk character next to the cheese drawing, with the pair hitch-hiking and holding beers in their hands.

Dorkin continued to sketch the two characters at conventions until Kurt Sayenga of the now defunct Greed Magazine saw them at a San Diego comic book convention and offered Dorkin a spot for a Milk & Cheese strip in the magazine. The strip ran in the final issue of Greed, published in 1989. Several more strips were printed in various comic books and magazines before Slave Labor Graphics collected them and published Milk & Cheese #1. Since that time the company has published six more comic books featuring the characters. Several issues of the title were numbered as number one issues, making fun of the practice of buying comic books as an investment instead of as entertainment.

In 2011, Dark Horse Comics released a hardcover collection containing nearly every strip featuring the characters from 1989 to 2010.[2]

Dorkin has turned down several offers to turn Milk & Cheese into an animated series or a movie, feeling that the characters would not translate well to the small or large screen. Merchandise such as magnets, Zippo lighters and lunchboxes have been produced though, and vinyl action figures of the pair have also been produced.